Coasting

In my line of work, month end can be an odd time. When you are short of your monthly goals, things are really crazy and stressful. On the other hand, if you have already reached your goals for the month, things are quiet...you are essentially "coasting" until the next month rolls around. This week I have been coasting and work has been quiet and peaceful in general. Sean flies into Lauderdale this afternoon and I have volunteered for pickup duty. I'm looking forward to having another man in the house...with Cheryl, Tracy, Onyx, Hannah, and Lucy all living at the Margarita Lounge right now, I'm feeling a little out-numbered!

Unbeleivable Madness

In what can only be described as unbeleivable, George Mason beat the mighty UConn this afternoon to make it to the Final Four and destroy everyone's brackets that had UConn winning it all. The game was everything that a crazy March Madness fan like me could ever have wanted...a nailbiter that went to overtime with the big underdog pulling out the upset. After beating UConn, North Carolina, and Michigan State, anything is possible next weekend for the Patriots. Florida, who is famous for choking in the big game, also surpisingly made it through to join LSU and UCLA.

Anyone who is interested in a party is welcome to drop by the Margarita Lounge this Saturday around 6pm to watch the game and eat some burgers and dogs. Big brother Sean (not my brother...Cheryl and Tracy's) is coming down to visit next weekend and drink some beers, so it should be a good time.

These "Civilized" Muslims?

I am having real problems lately believing our country should be involved with anyone in the Middle East. I have tried to steer clear of the news stories, but the more I read them, the more pissed off I become. For those of you who don't know what the hell I am babbling about, here is the executive summary: A muslim man living in Afghanistan leaves the country 16 years ago to be a medical aid worker helping fellow Afghan refugees. While he is out of the country, he converts to Christianity. He comes back to Afghanistan and most people in the country want to kill him because he converted to Christianity.

Now, I understand and respect different cultures and viewpoints, but this story has really disturbed me. These are the types of governments and people we consider "allies"? Are you shitting me? Maybe I am sheltered by living in a country with religious freedom, but how can you consider a culture, a people, or a country "civilized" and look at them equally when they want to kill anything that is different from them? And this guy is one of their fellow countrymen!

I always encourage some competitive banter at the Margarita Lounge, but I just can't see the other side of the argument here. I really hope that some of my intelligent readers out there can give me a rational argument for how this is acceptable behavior, but I just can't see it. Someone........anyone......?

Taking the Plunge

After a few days of debate, I finally decided to get season tickets for the Dolphins yesterday. Pimpbling and I will be cheering from the nosebleed section of Dolphins Stadium starting in September. With Dante on board, it looks like we should be challenging the Patriots for the division title this year.

On another note, I got an email this morning from the long-lost Dr. Assmunch. As only my wife knows who Dr. Munch is, lets just say he is a childhood friend of mine from good old Erie PA. While the Senator isn't actually a Senator, Dr. Munch is indeed a doctor. I guess he is now residing in Birmingham, AL on a fellowship and will be heading back to the great white north in August. Welcome Dr. Munch...your opinions and input are always welcome at the Margarita Lounge.

Some funny stories

Here are two funny stories I found this week when I was surfing the internet. They have been sitting in my in-box for a few days and I figured I would finally post them:

1) Man hits his own car then sues himself

2) Man severs own penis, throws it at officers

Unexpected Visitors

After a long hiatus, the Hickman family showed up at our door yesterday afternoon. They were looking at houses in the area and decided to drop by the Margarita Lounge for a short visit. As is typical with our short visits, it turned into about 5 hours of conversation, some carryout from Carabbas, and three bottles of wine sprinkled with some Scene It and some basketball on the ol' bigscreen. True to their word, Gunther and the Wine Mistress contributed to the draining of my new wine cellar. I actually thought we drank four bottles of wine last night until I woke up and saw it was only three.

Good news for the basketball tournament...I am no longer in the basement. As of this morning I have moved up from the absolutely depressing 14th place to the still incredibly pathetic 13th place in the office pool. I bought a new grill yesterday at Lowe's which I am really excited about firing up. To make it better, they even assembled it for me, so I don't have to spend all day today doing it myself. Cheryl and I caught a Panthers hockey game on Friday Night and did lots of housework and running around yesterday before entertaining last night. As for today, it's shaping up to be a real lazy Sunday....

I seem to have a broken bracket

I had mentioned earlier this week that I was running the office hoops pool. We have 14 people at $10 per head for a total of $140...not bad. I figured that I know a little bit about basketball and I thought my picks were pretty solid...a few upsets sprinkled in with some experienced teams. Well, I suck. Out of 14 people I am currently 14th. At least nobody can claim I cheated.

Dante Culpepper

Holy shit. After a rather depressing end to my work day, I was greeted with the wonderful news that Miami actually has a real quarterback again. Not shitty Jay Fiedler, AJ Feeley, or Gus Frerotte anymore...Mr. Dante Culpepper is now a Dolphin! I was really excited at the end of last season, but I can't tell you how excited I am about this coming year. To get me THIS excited about anything other than March Madness this time of year is quite an accomplishment. As long as they don't also sign TO, I'll be fine.

Dancing Time

The most wonderful time of the year is upon us...tourney time. OK, so maybe the four majors in golf are better overall, but there is no better two week period than the NCAA Basketball Tournament. What other time of the year is it perfectly acceptable to leave work at noon to watch a few games? Don't forget to get your brackets in for your office pool. I've decided to run our office pool for the fourth year in a row and I'm hoping I can actually win this year.

The Wino Couple

I guess that Cheryl and I are developing into quite the wino couple. Yesterday I went to the ABC store and dropped $130 on wine. Last night, Cheryl came home from a wine tasting party with a $150 bill. Good thing I just bought a wine fridge that holds 32 bottles, because we are going to need the storage space. Oh yeah...the fridge was about $300, so our booze-related bill from the last week is now at $580. Throw in the money I spent having some beers with the Catfisherman on Thursday after work and I guess we can round it off at an even $600. Do you think there is a problem here?

Funny stories

I just read a story mentioning a poll taken by Stuff magazine recently. According to the poll, if given the choice to spend the night with Tom Cruise or Saddam Hussein, Americans prefer Saddam. For someone who used to be considered the Sexiest Man Alive, this should be quite a blow. But then again, acting psycho on a regular basis does that.

I also read an article today involving a student in Alaska. During the torch running before the 2002 Winter Olympics, this kid displayed a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" in the hopes of getting on TV. I guess the principal confiscated the banner and suspended the kid. After a long, drawn-out legal process, a court recently said that this banner is covered under free speech and he shouldn't have been suspended. Normally, I could care less about a story like this, but you gotta give Cheech some credit here...that banner is hilarious.

Politicians

While I have backed off on the preaching recently, I still get a kick out of some stories I read on the internet. Funny story of the day revolves around Mrs Hillary Clinton. According to the story, Hillary was unaware of her husband's recent advising of Dubai on how to handle the port situation. Hillary was one of the strongest and most vocal opponents of the deal. Are people really expected to beleive that Hillary had no idea of Bill's close ties to Dubai? Do the Clintons really think we are all that stupid?

Bill Clinton earned $450,000 last year lecturing in Dubai. His presidential library received between $500,000 and $1 Million from officials in Dubai. The UAE contributed $100 Million to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, which Clinton was involved in and it is well known in the Middle East that the UAE is a strong supporter of Clinton. For Hillary to claim she didn't know anything is just ridiculous.

I just think it was kind of funny how this story has been relegated to the back pages of the newspapers. A woman who very well could be the 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidate seems to be getting a free pass on this from our "fair and impartial" media. If something like this would occur to a very influential Republican family, I am sure they would be cut down in the media as liars and bastards. Just an interesting observation....

Catching up on Lost

As some of you know, I have become a big fan of "Lost" over the past month or two. Having picked things up at the start of the second season, I decided on Friday to rent the first season at Blockbuster. So far, I'm through the first six episodes and will probably be through another few tonight. I think I've even converted Cheryl to a fan.

As for Cheryl and I, we have been doing stuff around the house this weekend and drinking a little wine at nights...nothing too crazy. We got some take out from Chilis last night. Surprisingly, everything tasted good, was ready when I showed up, and the order was correct...something that I find increasingly rare in Palm Beach County. We are heading to the Cardinals/Marlins spring training game at 1pm which should be fun. We went to a game last year which was a lot of fun and the plans are to go to a few more games later this month down in Lauderdale.

And thats about it. As you can tell, I have been rather uninspired this week...I guess you could call it writers block or just plain laziness. Hopefully the week ahead will bring some creativity...